Prague Rock

I gave a talk about scambaiting at IS2, the Information Security Summit in Prague. It was held on the grounds of the Prague Castle, was beautifully organized, and included a completely unexpected treat - a performance by the excellent Czech string band, Poutnici (Pilgrims), who do a mean cover of Telegraph Road (yeh really).

The talks were interpreted between Czech and English in real-time, and I suspect the interpreter had a hard time with my talk, judging by the stunned silence in places. The good soul on the program committee who translated my paper told me later that he had a hard time finding an exact translation for 'scam-baiter'. Everyone was familiar with the basic subject, though, if nothing else because of the tragic incident in which a Czech '419' victim shot the Nigerian consul in Prague a few years back. Apparently the consul had tried to warn the victim not to proceed with a '419' deal, and was not sympathetic enough after the fact.